Audacia Novatio - Super cheap but unnaccredited school

[CollegeStudentAC]

https://www.anbc.education/fees-scholarships

[SteveFoerster]

I'm okay with a school that's not accredited and says so, and maybe even with a school that's not accredited and just doesn't talk about it. Every new institution has to start somewhere.

But this? 

https://www.anbc.education/about-us

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, they're not accredited, I wonder why they're trying so hard to be legit by joining these as members. The only one that seems valid is for Continuing Professional Development... They need to have proper accreditation, otherwise, this seems like a diploma mill...

[SteveFoerster]

Yeah, they're not accredited, I wonder why they're trying so hard to be legit by joining these as members.

I don't wonder: they're trying to look like something they're not. 

The only one that seems valid is for Continuing Professional Development... They need to have proper accreditation, otherwise, this seems like a diploma mill...

They would have looked better simply to say they're not accredited. 

Compare with Newstate University (which is too new to have accreditation) and what they say:

https://newstateu.com/accreditation

They don't say they're accredited by some unrecognized entity. They don't try to say that accreditation doesn't matter. They do mention being a member of Quality Matters, which is fine because it's true and QM is a legitimate organization that doesn't have a membership/accreditation dichotomy. And they focus on something genuinely valuable, that they've built articulation agreement relationships with a number of indisputably legitimate schools, so prospective students know that if they want to transfer or go on for further study that they won't be stuck.

I don't think I've seen any startup institution thread the needle better than that.

[cacoleman1983]

I would put this in the same bucket as ACLAS. However, ACLAS is a little cheaper. Both Audacia and ACLAS have the EAHEA accreditation and the CPD accreditation. The way they have EAHEA listed with multiple and varying logos looks so spammy.

[slammX]

https://www.anbc.education/fees-scholarships

This website screams "fake". Absolutely every image is AI generated. It also says they're located in Florida, but the phone number has a South African dialing code. This is not unheard of for a WhatsApp number, but this "Professor William Le Crouge" a purported "respected academic, global entrepreneur, and visionary leader" has absolutely no presence online other than ANBC - clearly a fictitious character.

[slammX]

I did a quick lookup and the phone number is registered to this guy:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kobus-venter-04a5a216b

He's apparently a director of ANBC and unsurprisingly, an MBA graduate of ACLAS.

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, interesting, seems like one big institution, with multiple schools as subsidiaries... Reminds me a whole lot of those PI institutions, they go from K to graduate school, and links all over the place.